All that is Beautiful
by CindyBarnard
Summary: Perhaps Hermione should never have left that castle... At least she had been safely oblivious to the outside world. Yet, loneliness drove her out to find some remaining beauty in the world. To find her lost friends. What she found instead was beyond any imaginings. HG/DM - Dark Draco. Fairy Tale Fest by TheMourningMadam - Prompt Fairy: Philosopher's Stone


_Fairy Tale Prompt:_ The Philosopher's Stone

_Fest:_ Once Upon A Time by TheMourningMadam

_General Notes:_ Timeline is Canon right to about the final battle in DH. Voldemort didn't die but all his horcruxes had been destroyed (including inside Harry). Voldemort did win and all light wizarding folk had either been killed or went into hiding. World War also broke out about the same time Voldemort took over after the final battle.

**All that is Beautiful  
**

It was dark when Hermione ventured out of the old castle. Her mission was very simple… She needed to find any remaining good in the world. She had been alone for years now, hiding… Waiting. But no one came back. Not Harry. Not Ron. Not Neville or George. She was completely alone with the old wizard and she couldn't take it anymore.

There had to be something out there.

Something other than the darkness of Lord Voldemort in his world.

Hermione knew she was taking a big risk as she packed her little beaded bag. She knew she was safe in this castle with the old wizard Alphard, protector of the Book of All.

He was like a father to her, but she was lonely… Alphard could only offer her so much companionship. And she could only listen to so many of his stories about what the book contained. She guessed it would have been different if she could actually read the book… But to her, it only appeared as a blank old manuscript. She hadn't been chosen by the gods to be its guardian, so she could not read it. Her companions had left the castle one by one in the years since their arrival here. But they had never returned. And now it was her turn.

Hermione patted her beaded bag and then turned to make her way to Alphard's room in the quiet of the night. She entered slowly and noticed a single flickering candle. A soft smile formed as she padded to his chair, not at all surprised to find that he was still awake.

As she reached him, he glanced up at her, his mouth lifted with a warm, yet sad smile.

"Is my daughter leaving me as well now?" he spoke softly in his comforting voice and Hermione kneeled in front of him while grasping his hand between hers.

"I have to Father Alphard… I miss my friends… My brothers… I need to find them. And I need to see that they are still beautiful souls, to prove your book wrong."

Alphard nodded in understanding at her words and took his free hand to lay it on her head. "I give you three things for your journey… gifts from the gods. May you find your way back here, through that fine cord that binds us when it is time. May you be blind to all, as to be able to perceive what is true in soul. And may you find all that is beautiful in the darkness that your life will be."

Hermione smiled and kissed the wrinkled hand still clasped between her own in thanks. She knew Alphard was wise and powerful beyond all. He had been chosen by the gods themselves and his gifts bestowed by them directly. If he blessed her with those gifts, she knew them to be real and accepted them.

With that, Hermione left his room and made her way to the doors of the castle. Trepidation and warriness stalled her feet for the barest moment as she was about to cross the threshold, but with a shake of her head, she stepped outside to the moonlit gardens of their abode.

XXX

She had been travelling for what seemed like weeks… weeks of constant darkness. She had no idea what had caused the sky to become permanently overcast in dark and thunderous clouds. She knew that the Muggle world had erupted into a total world war at the same time that the Wizarding world was taken over by Lord Voldemort. That had been the time she and her companions had fled to the farthest reaches of northern Scotland to a fabled, magical castle, hoping to find it to be real. It had been.

And it had become their sanctuary for years.

Their safety had come with the price that they knew nothing of what was happening in the world. But by the second week of seeing no blue sky or sunshine, Hermione surmised that whatever had happened had obviously broken the ecological system.

The moment she stepped out of the gates of the castle garden, the darkness had greeted her. It had been such a shock to step from a moonlit, starry sky and green gardens to darkness and a dying earth. A few plants still managed to grow with the limited light that managed to break through the clouds, but not in the same abundance of before.

Hermione had pushed down her shock and Apparated to the Burrow. She made sure to appear in the woods first, in case there were any Death Eaters or even Muggle hostile forces in the area. She had absolutely no idea what to expect after years of isolation. But she hadn't needed to worry, the Burrow was an ash pile and the yard overrun by garden gnomes and weeds. It was abandoned and utterly devoid of other life except for the grumbling gnomes making their way from one hole to another. Hermione sighed and picked her way through the debris to see if she could find anything to give her a clue as to what happened or to help with her survival. She was lucky to find a few scraggly vegetable plants growing between the weeds. It would be enough. She could at least eat some vegetable stew that night. She didn't want to go into her packed rations unless absolutely necessary.

From that day she had travelled from the places that she knew - her friend's homes, places they had hidden before, but she never found anything more than either destroyed or abandoned places. She then started venturing into the Muggle world.

Much of the Muggle world also lay in ruin. Hermione found cities and towns largely reduced to rubble. Almost every place she went she would find in the same thing, desolation and death. At least there were survivors. Muggles had pocketed themselves in little settlements in the towns and cities. They lived as scavengers and she was surprised to see some of these settlements actually attempting to start growing crops. Well, with the edible plant life that seemed to survive in this dark world.

By the end that third week travelling through such a bleak landscape, she wondered if the whole world looked like this now, or just Britain.

At night, Hermione would listen to the Muggles talk with the pair of extendable ears she still had. She realised when night was when it became even darker. The blackness was only broken every few minutes by lighting streaking in the clouds.

Through her eavesdropping, she had gathered that most of the world seemed to have blacked out. Only short distance trading on foot happened and that was mostly how close-knit settlements stayed in touch. She wondered what happened and was heartbroken when her constant eavesdropping from rubble corners revealed everything from biological warfare right down to atomic bombs. All cities had been targeted by missiles as she discovered with her travels to them and eavesdropping its survivor. The entire world had finally gone mad, Hermione thought.

She never engaged with the Muggles. She imagined that they may be too wary and she too thought it might be hard for her to easily blend in with them, given the current state of things. Besides, she didn't really know what was normal anymore. Therefore better to keep her distance until she knew more.

It was in her third week of exploring and looking for her friends that she felt a dark presence was following her.

It was a whisper in her ear… A billow of dark shadow around a corner… a tingle down her spine… A feathering on her neck…

Yet every time she would turn around, it would be nothing. Just the constant shadows and dark. Her eyes had long since adjusted to the shadowed days, but at night she was completely blind but for her wand's Lumos and the lightning in the clouds. When she felt particularly safe in a location she would make her little blue flames in order to bring comfort and familiarity. They would float all around her and make her smile in memory. Sometimes she thought she would go mad with the silence and darkness so the familiar flames helped to tether her to the present.

Hermione had avoided London and Diagon Alley thus far. She had also avoided Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. Somehow she knew if there were still a Voldemort and his Death Eaters, as well as a muggle military presence, then she would be more likely to find them in those locations. She traveled the countryside for more than a month, searching for answers, trying to gather information about this strange new world. She was not yet ready to face what she might find in those places.

But after still no sign of any wizards or witches she knew, she would have to eventually go there. Hopefully some good was to be found there somewhere.

The shadow was still following her. He had become more bold, going as far as to whisper in her ear in those moments between wakefulness and sleeping. His words were taunting… making her fret about her sanity.

Eventually, she would respond to his words with more positive counters. To his every 'they abandoned you…' she would respond with 'they are just lost…'

It worked for a few weeks. But then his words became more….

Now his whispers in those moments before sleep claimed her would be darker… And accompanied by feathered touches around her closed eyes or lips.

Hermione was blind. She could never see him, but she knew he was there. Always around her. Wherever she Apparated, he seemed to find her in seconds. And then the taunting would begin again.

'You want to touch me…' he would whisper one night to her. She couldn't respond to these whispers, as she couldn't deny it, but nor could she confirm it. It was as if her mind was also stuck in that place of not yet sleeping and not fully awake anymore, along with her body. 'You wonder what my lips will feel like against yours…'

His whisper would then be accompanied by the feathered touch at the corner of her mouth. Before Hermione could try and force her mind awake to open her eyes she would instead instantly fall into the oblivion of sleep.

The shadow was driving her to madness. But she didn't stop. She continued to search for her friends. For something beautiful still left. Something to take back to Alphard to show him that his book was wrong. The book that had predicted this darkness. This ugliness.

Hermione also wanted the shadow to show himself. So she started asking him when he would visit her in those seconds. 'you tremble for me…' he would whisper. 'show yourself to me…' she would reply.

Or he would whisper other, darker things to her. 'I will make you bleed… Hurt you, right here…' and she would feel a feathered touch down the side of her throat. But still she would respond. 'I want to see you.' To that he had laughed softly in her ear, as she felt the pressure around her throat build, as if a hand was pressing there. 'I am not hiding… It is you who is blind.'

With that Hermione woke up, as if for the first time ever. Her eyes popping open as realisation dawned over her - Alphard's blessing.

He said let she be blind as to be able to see the soul. Was this it? Was this what she was blind to? Magical people like herself? Or was it something else? Someone?

Hermione felt for her wand and held it up to peer around her shelter for the night. As if her mind had opened simply with the knowledge of her blindness, she could now see a shadowed figure in the corner of the rubble-filled room. She couldn't make out any distinguishing features as the small blue flames didn't light that well. He was just a black mass of person, completely cloaked in darkness, with the hood of his cloak pulled low over his face, and gloves on his hands.

"Who are you?" her voice sounded foreign to her own ears.

The dark figure laughed softly at her words. "Tell me, Granger… What's the soul of me?"

Hermione blanched. Someone she had known once then. A wizard obviously as he had clearly been performing Legilimency on her for weeks with her so-called dreams. She frowned as she thought on his request, wondering how this gift from Alphard would reveal his soul to her. Hermione was just about to shrug it off when feelings of loneliness bombarded her. Despair and pain. Mischief and resentment. What a contradiction she thought of the last two.

"Darkness. Everything about your soul comes back as darkness."

The figure laughed. It sounded amused yet empty at the same time.

"Well, then what more can I say? You quite have me read then." His voice sounded familiar to her but she couldn't place it at all.

"Is there anyone left of the magical world?" She dared to ask.

The dark figure seemed to shrug at her question but did answer her. "You and I are all that are left… that matter."

Hermione frowned at him."That matter?"

He laughed under his breath and seemed to glide closer. "Yes… There are four others I have found, your friends, actually. But they are not important. They are minor characters compared to us."

Hermione jumped up then. Her friends were alive! "Where are they?"

"Probably waiting on our appearance. I told them it was almost time, once I found you." He had come close enough to her that she could see his face shadowed beneath his cloak hood. It was too shadowed for her to distinguish his face still, yet she could make out very pale skin and a sharp chin. "What do you mean? I don't understand…"

He leaned in and whispered in her ear, his breath sending shivers down her spine. "I have been waiting for you. I found them one by one… alone and lost… I knew I had to get you. You are the one that can take us to wizard Alphard… We are all that is left of the magical world. For now, you're the Maiden… Tomorrow, you will be the Mother… And after that, you will be the Crone… And I… I will be your consort..."

Hermione gasped at his words. He was truly darkness. Evil. She had no illusions as to what he meant. With the state of the world now and the severely diminished muggle population… They would be like gods. Hermione tried to step away from him but he caught her around her neck, his hand clasped firmly and again he applied pressure to her throat. He walked her backwards until her back made hard contact with the wall, as his free hand firmly grasped her wrist of her wand hand and raised it over her head, causing Hermione to drop her wand. The noise of the wood clattering against the bare concrete floor was deafening in the silence of the night. She was relieved to see that her floating blue flames didn't die out and that she could still somewhat see their immediate surroundings.

"Now now, Granger… None of that. You see, you might not be aware as of yet, but I am. You are not afraid of me. In fact, the pulse in your neck racing beneath my fingers is because of excitement, need. Even now your body is squirming against me, not to get loose, but to feel."

Hermione froze, realising the truth of it. Her body had been squirming and not to get away, but rather against him. Her skin tingled where it was against his and her heart raced in excitement. Even his restricting hand against her throat somehow managed to make her feel alive. What was wrong with her? This was some kind of sick mind game she was sure of it.

"Let me go. This is wrong." Her voice rasped due to her restricted airflow.

He laughed throatily at her words and instead of releasing her he bent his head to whisper against her ear once more. He liked whispering, she thought off-handedly. "No, Granger… I've waited too long for you… You need to find the beauty in your world… Otherwise, all of this will be for naught. I am darkness and you are light. Together we make a whole."

Before she could respond to that, he turned his head and his lips slammed over hers. His kiss was hard and cold, and yet warm and soft as well. His other hand let go of her wrist to grab her curls and pull her head to the side. The new angle made their mouths meet at a deeper level, and it was only seconds into the kiss before she kissed him back, all thought lost as she only felt.

She had no idea how long they had stood there, his hands still to her throat and hair while hers had buried inside his cloak to clutch around his chest. The kissing deep and heated while both fought to control the other. It could have been hours or only a minute yet she didn't care. Weeks of having him whisper to her had managed to lure her to him thoroughly.

He had seduced her with darkness and sin and at that moment, she could feel no shame...

Finally, the kiss ended and he let her go. She lifted her hands to push down his hood, giving him plenty of opportunity to stop her. He didn't.

"I want to see who…" She whispered as she finally pushed down his hood.

The scant light immediately reflected against the lightest blond hair she knew. Steel grey eyes met her own brown in a dare for her response. Hermione didn't flinch. Instead, she let her fingers ghost up his shoulders to feel his chin, cheeks and brows, tracing his features, defiant yet hesitant.

As light as he was physically, she knew his soul to be dark. Why did she want him? Why was she already allowing him to tuck her beneath his arm and Accio her wand before Disapparating them away? Why did his dark embrace feel like her whole world?

**XXX**

They appeared in a darkly draped bedroom. Candles flared to life within seconds of them arriving with a soft pop to illuminate the opulent room. It was all dark woods and damask furniture in colours of cream and soft blue. Hermione recognised it as typical decor from old aristocratic homes and guessed them to be at Malfoy Manor, wondering how it still stood.

Draco Malfoy released her with a small satisfied smile and stepped back to view her intensely. It made Hermione feel uncomfortable as she still was trying to get to terms with the happenings of the last hour.

"You do realise that you belong to me now." His voice made her start with the abruptness of it. She frowned up at him in confusion, but was stopped cold from responding by the fierce coldness she saw on his face. Her heart hammered in fear - or was it excitement? What was wrong with her?

"I'm not a possession, Malfoy."

"No. But you are my consort. We have been waiting for you too long, and the others are too weak to be your equal. Too light to be your balance."

What were his words? He was talking as if they had some higher divine purpose. Maybe this forsaken world had messed with his head. She knew that she was probably a few screws loose from her years of near-isolation.

"These others… they are my friends? Take me to them, please?"

Hermione wasn't above begging to see her long lost companions, and she was ready to do so if he kept her from them a moment longer. Luckily, he didn't seem to have any intention to do so. Draco took her elbow with a smirk while handing her wand back to her with his other hand, and didn't say another word as he guided her out of the room.

XXX

It had been a whole day since she had arrived at Malfoy Manor. She was in shock and exhausted. Her friends were here… Harry, Ron, Neville and George. But they were different.

They followed Malfoy. She had checked to see if they were under the Imperius Curse or other enchantments, but they seemed to be of their own minds, only their own minds held the same beliefs as Malfoy. That their group were the only wizarding folk left besides Alphard, which made them as good as divinity for the surviving Muggles. It wasn't that they bowed to Malfoy, though. They appeared to be equals and respected each other, yet Malfoy was most decidedly elevated above them as well. It was a strange form of companionship with a subtle hierarchy.

She had no idea how it had developed. She could see just about how all of them fell in line for Malfoy as the Alpha, except for Harry. Yet, here it was… Harry also ceded to Malfoy, seemingly quite content about it as well.

She wondered how this had happened.

Her mind was confused and her life becoming darker all the more. How could she find anything beautiful to take back to father Alphard? Her brothers seemed to be going with the belief that they ought to rule the Muggles. They were supposed to be her something beautiful, but now they believed that they were special, more important than Muggles. They were discriminatory.

She had spent the day with her friends, discussing what each had discovered in the years since they had left. Each tale reinforced for Hermione exactly how bad the world had become. Apparently, the lack of electricity she had heard talk of was indeed due to the devastation that reached across the world. Her friends and Malfoy had spent years combing the globe for other Wizards, apparating everywhere they could. The entire European continent was in the same state as England. They found the Americas and Africa to be the same, as well. They had found small pockets of survivors who had escaped the worst of the destruction, but very few Wizards. Here in England, they were apparently the only magical folk.

It was a very different world, which seemed to be the predominant reason for her friends' new beliefs. They had adapted and changed accordingly, but could she adapt and change with them?

Hermione fretted in her bed. She couldn't sleep. She kept waiting for a whisper in her ear, a caress down her cheek. Yet, for the first time in weeks it didn't come. No shadow and no sinful words.

Finally, she threw back the covers and made her way from her room, her wand tip glowing to light her way. Hermione had no idea where she was going, so she trusted in her feet and magic to find her way. After a couple of minutes, she found herself standing in front of double doors heavily engraved with an elaborate 'M'. She sighed as she knew exactly where her magic had led her.

Without knocking, she silently pushed open the doors, not at all surprised to see a single flickering candle and Draco Malfoy lounging on his bed looking expectantly at her. He was shirtless and only in a long john on top of his covers. Hermione didn't say a word and neither did he as she padded across the carpet to his bed. She climbed up and curled up next to him, and he moved his arm beneath her shoulders to cradle her to his chest. Her ear rested right atop his heart and she listened to its thumping.

"Just talk to me… tell me everything." Her voice was barely a whisper as she made her request.

With a withdrawn breath, he started talking. He told her of his loneliness after the war, of believing he was alone. He told her of how he ransacked the remainder of the books in libraries wherever he went. How he started reading. He told her of how he found an old Black family manuscript that talked of the Castle of Life and it's guardian who cared for the Book of All. How he knew there he could find the secret of immortality. How he looked for the castle but could never find it. Only the chosen could find it.

His voice caressed her as his story unfold.

He went on to tell her how he found her friends one by one, alone and lost and going out of their minds. How he brought them to his home where they formed their odd bonds, knowing that it hadn't been for him they would have succumbed to the madness that came with the darkness of this new world. At least, that gave her some explanation of how her friends had come to believe in his ideology. Her friends had confirmed the existence of the very place he had been searching for, but they couldn't find their way back. He had pieced together that it was because she had been the one chosen and knew they just had to be patient, as she would come eventually to find her friends.

She listened in silence as Draco's words turned darker. He told her of how the loneliness had eaten away at him. How he needed a true partner… a mate… an equal. The drive started to drown out the companionship of the four other wizards and his need to rise above all started to lead him to darker ways. As he and her friends saw the remaining human race flounder and fail, they had come to realise that they needed to be led. They would need to be guided to avoid any such future catastrophe as had happened a decade previously. How Harry was most vehemently for it right next to him; she figured his life being bullied by his muggle family and now with the muggle wars having effectively destroyed all he held dear… that he must have finally snapped. And of course, wherever Harry went Ron would follow, along with Neville and George.

Finally, he explained how they realised they were now as good as gods among men - On a earth that needed them once more.

XXX

Hermione spent her days with her friends, getting to know them as they were now. But each night, she would crawl in bed with Draco to have him hold her and whisper his plans to her as she fell asleep in his arms.

It was inevitable. She knew that she would give them what they wanted eventually. She couldn't spend her days listening to her friends talking about what they would do as gods to the Muggles and not be influenced. She heard George refer to himself as the Trickster who would bring laughter back to the island. She heard Neville say that he would be the Gardener to teach the Muggles how to farm and grow crops once more. She listened as Ron told her of how he would teach them to craft and built with their hands and eventually with tools again, and how Harry waxed poetic that he would be the Warrior, their defender. He would train man to once more fight and protect those unable to protect themselves. How could she not see the logic of their words?

At night, she would listen to Draco as he spoke of ruling all, with her by his side. How she would equal him and that she would be the trinity goddesses embodied. How he would make sure humanity didn't destroy the world further. That he would mete out justice to those deserving of it.

Hermione was finally convinced that he was the best Wizard to be the new god, and that her friends were ideal to be his companion gods…

And she?

She would follow Draco. For when she was with him, she didn't feel alone. When she was with him, he felt like her whole world - that everything outside of them melted away and was insignificant.

With him, she forgot about the darkness.

XXX

She walked to the gates of the castle hand in hand with Draco. His black cloak was in stark contrast to the sunny and green gardens. How she had missed this paradise, she thought with a wistful smile, but in the deep recesses of her mind, she knew that she would never be this light again.

Behind them followed her friends, her brothers. They purposely strode up the path to the doors of the white marble castle, beautiful in its majestic splendour. Godly.

The doors swung open on their own accord in welcome to its missing daughter, returned and the party didn't miss a step, as they went inside.

Hermione wasn't surprised to see the old Wizard Alphard standing inside awaiting them. His smile was welcoming but also tinged with sadness, as his eyes rested on Hermione. His hands lifted to rest on her shoulders as they came to a halt in front of him.

"My daughter has come back. And I see you have found your darkness and brought it along." His old voice sounded world-weary.

Hermione frowned at his words as she deciphered his meaning. Realisation dawning as her hand tightened around Draco's. "I have, Father Alphard. But, I have also found the beautiful. It is there when he holds me and looks into my eyes."

The wizard searched her face and gave a single nod, still keeping his hands on her shoulders. "Then continue looking into his eyes, daughter, otherwise his darkness will eat you whole."

With that he finally dropped his hands to step back, his eyes still trained on her. "Today you are the maiden, the beginning of that which is new. May you bear fruit. Tomorrow you will be a mother, nurturer of what is. May you protect those in need. Thereafter, you will become the crone, imparter of wisdom. May you guide all those who seek."

His eyes only then turned to the ominous presence next to her, cloaked in black and pale as a vampire. Draco was still securely clasping Hermione's hand, Alphard stepped forward, a small velvet bag dangled from his hand. "The book foretold your coming. Here are six stones, one for each of you. The Master of Tricks. The Master of Crops. The Master of Crafts. The Master of the Warriors. Mistress of Life. And you, Master of Justice and Death."

With those words, the bag dropped into Draco's outstretched palm. Hermione watched in morbid fascination as Draco closed his fist around the small bag and gave a curt nod to Alphard.

It happened without Hermione realising what was coming. In one movement, Draco let go of her hand and instead encircled her shoulders. In the next, he had pulled her against him, with her face tucked into his shoulder so she couldn't see what was going on. The next moment she heard his voice speak lowly. "Did your book foretell what I will do next?"

Hermione didn't struggle to free her vision, Draco's calming embrace kept her steady and happily blind. She heard father Alphard respond resolutely. "Of course. I have been waiting for this conclusion my whole life. You cannot rule with me still in residence. Just know, your firstborn will be charged as guardian of the Book of All, as all of the firstborn of your line will be."

Hermione frowned at the words, but before she could pull away to look at Alphard, she heard a spell leave Draco's wand, followed by the thump of something hitting the floor. In seconds, Hermione moved away from Draco and crouched next to Alphard's body. Tears streamed out of the corner of her eyes as she felt for a pulse, knowing that it would be in vain. She kissed her father's forehead and closed his eyelids.

She didn't bother to turn to look at Draco as words fell from her lips. "Why? He wouldn't have stopped you. You didn't need to kill him! You truly are darkness."

A sob broke her voice at the end as she lowered her head to Alphard's chest to mourn her loss. The wizard had been her father, her mentor, and Draco had coldly killed him without thought.

A hand came to rest on her back which she knew was his. Hermione flinched at the touch, but the hand did not leave her back. After a few minutes, as her crying subsided, Draco finally spoke.

"Look at me, Hermione." His voice was barely a whisper as he tugged her up by her hands.

Hermione kept her gaze averted as she stood up, but when he turned her to face him, she lifted her eyes to find his. The warmth that he bestowed only on her was shining out of the steel orbs. "It had to be done. For the planned future, he had to die. He knew it, as well. Trust in me."

All thoughts of upset drifted away as his steady gaze kept her locked to him. She knew he was darkness, she also knew that she had chosen him. What had Alphard said? Find the beautiful in the darkness that her life would be. Keep looking in his eyes as to not be consumed.

His eyes. the only living eyes she was ever to allow herself to see from then on.

400 Years Later

The battlefield was strewn with bodies… corpses long dead and cold as the pre-dawn light trickled through the clouds… Crows and other creatures of prey picked away at the decaying flesh. A figure in a pure white cloak and a basket of flowers was walking amongst the bodies, softly singing to the dead in a song of departure, that she had crafted centuries earlier. Every few lines she would stop and bend to close blank unseeing eyes and place a wildflower from her basket on its head. After she had walked through the entire battlefield, she closed her eyes and strew the remaining flowers in the wind, and as she did so, she felt the spirits release to meet in the Otherworld.

Her job done she turned to the starkly contrasted, black-cloaked figure waiting for her on the hill. Meeting him after a few minutes, black and white entwined their hands together to make their way back to the Castle of Life.

"Why always so much death, Draco?" Hermione asked softly with a last look at the battlefield.

"Population control. Power. Justice. All are reasons, love. I am death and you are life. I see all fault yet you are blind to a fault. Our children seed the country along with our Companions creating more… Enemies come from offshore and we defend what is ours. All is as it must be."

She nodded at his words. All the words he said before and she knew the reasons by heart. But still, it was their ritual. After every battle, in every war, she would ask this and he would respond the same.

Glancing up she saw the rest of the clouds drifting away to let the morning sunrise finally bathe the field in a soft golden glow. Her final thought before they Disapparated was that at least the Earth had healed… the clouds were gone and flowers grew once more. All due to their magic and a few Philosopher's Stones.

They were gods among men.


End file.
